Monday, August 8, 2011

Crown and Thistle, Peter Street

According to a report from spy Kennedy from c. 20 November 1792, Division 4 met in the "Crown & Thistle Peter St Westr" (TS 11/959/3503; Thale 29). The report is brief, simply stating that the meeting was "Partly of the same Tenor" as the meeting of div. 3 (held on 14 Nov at the Green Dragon in King Street Golden Square). Kennedy's report from the div. 3 meeting states "Their principle conversation was respecting the reform & each firmly resolv'd to support each other in the business to see themselves righted but without any violence whatever."

Click to enlarge

According to the Survey of London, Peter Street, which is a small passage west of Wardour Street in Soho, probably gets its name from a saltpetre house which was built in 1656. "In 1720 Peter Street was described as 'a Street not over well inhabited', and in the 1830's as 'a short dirty street, without any thoroughfare'. By the late nineteenth century the buildings had become 'wretched hovels, and a disgrace to humanity'."

As befitting an area which is a disgrace to humanity I have been unable to locate further information about the Crown and Thistle, though Horwood's map shows that a large brewery belonging to Sturkey and Co occupied a large plot at the end of the Peter Street. Whether the Crown and Thistle had any connection with the brewery is unknown.